Plain
by zenonaa
Summary: "Shizuka recalled her mother as being the first to refer to her as a 'simple' child. Never to her face, and never when she thought her daughter could hear her." Cheershipping


**I have a different ff account for ygo fics but yeah I'm going to dump this here.**

**I made a list of prompts for 'ship' fics (in quotation marks because they're not all romance-centric) and tried to put in some that I don't usually think much about. Like this one, aha. They're not all going to be ygo.**

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Shizuka recalled her mother as being the first to refer to her as a 'simple' child. Never to her face, and never when she thought her daughter could hear her. The remark usually arose when Shizuka's mother spoke to a faceless woman on the telephone, particularly in the days before the divorce, while Shizuka was preoccupied in some kind of activity. Most commonly during the creation of paper dolls, all neatly arranged in a row, a multitude of outfits at their feet. She liked to group them into families- a mother, father and two children. Sometimes three, if the third addition was a baby. Katsuya didn't care for the game so whenever Shizuka wished for them to play together, she drew in breath and toddled after him.

It usually led to scraped knees and dirty clothes. Her mother clicked her tongue whenever Shizuka sat on a stool in the kitchen, leg out for her to inspect the damage. Grizzling because she couldn't reach the next branch like her brother, or because he didn't like to slow down for her. Shizuka's mother would sigh and hint that she should think for herself, only for it to go over her daughter's head. Not because Shizuka didn't understand, like her mother assumed, but because spending time with Katsuya was worth the grazes and bruises.

The former reason seemed more logical to her mother though because after all, Shizuka was a simple child.

Simple was one of the nicer ways of putting it, as proved by her father during his drunken rants. Her mother told her not to take it to heart but it didn't stop Shizuka peering at herself in a mirror years later. Didn't stop her tilting her head and regarding herself from different angles. Her father often sneered it was a good thing she had been born pretty, because she didn't have much else going for her.

But was she pretty? The popular girls at school wore makeup and swapped boyfriends like video tapes. While Shizuka was by no means unpopular, their world mystified and intrigued her. Her school friends disapproved of such a lifestyle and made it a point to vocalise this whenever the in crowd and its spies were out of earshot, but Shizuka held them to no ill-contempt. If those girls liked to go out with boys and wear makeup, they were free to do so and she would not judge them. Her friend Mai liked to flirt (particularly with Katsuya) and she wore makeup, yet she was kind and strong. Shizuka found those characteristics said far more about someone's worth, and the criteria her school friends judged them with were mere supplements to a person.

Still, regardless of the observations Shizuka made, nothing prepared her for the sudden attentions from Katsuya's friends. Particularly those of Honda and Otogi.

She liked Honda. He entertained her, though she didn't know if he intended to the way he did. His antics warranted a chuckle from behind her hand, and she admired his dedication to his friends.

No. Their friends. Everyone accepted her as one of the group. And what a group. The King Of Games (though Shizuka only ever saw Yugi play one kind of game), an aspiring dancer (it was nice having another girl in the group, especially one as kind as Anzu, what with Mai dropping by and leaving sporadically), a loner with a thing for the occult (Bakura showed her his deck, which she showed polite interest in before Honda dragged her away), and then there was Otogi. Smooth, graceful Otogi, who touched her hands and left a slip of paper between her fingers bearing his phone number. Whose smile gleamed like his die earring, green eyes framed with black.

Comparing people, friends, left a sour taste in her mouth, but Shizuka couldn't deny that Otogi was in a league of his own. Smart. Funny. Good-looking. Very good-looking. Extremely good-looking. Could pick almost anyone for a romantic partner or even an arm accessory, yet he chose to pursue her. Plain Shizuka. Nothing against Honda, but he lacked the spark Otogi gave her whenever he whisked her to the side and conversed with her. Otogi enthralled her with his stories, and she could see her reflection in his eyes. Not on them- she captivated him just as much, with her trivial tales and shy responses.

Whatever Otogi saw, it wasn't a plain and simple girl.

And Shizuka liked that.


End file.
